Woman accused of threatening to blow up DMV office in Opa-locka

Raiza Cueto-Alvarez, 54, called office twice this month, police say

Raiza Cueto-Alvarez is accused of threatening to blow up a DMV office in Opa-locka.

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. - A South Florida woman was arrested Wednesday, a couple weeks after she allegedly threatened to blow up a Division of Motorist Services office in Opa-locka, authorities said.

According to an arrest warrant, Raiza Cueto-Alvarez, 54, called the DMV office at 12601 NW 42nd Ave. just before 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 7 and told an employee that a bomb was going to go off at the building in five minutes.

Miami-Dade police bomb-sniffing K-9s were brought into the office, along with members of the Florida Highway Patrol's Bureau of Criminal Investigations and Intelligence (BCII), but no explosive device was found.

According to the warrant, Cueto-Alvarez called the same DMV office the next morning and said a bomb was going off "right now."

Police said the building was evacuated for a second time and no suspicious devices were found inside.

According to authorities, both employees who took the calls from Cueto-Alvarez said they didn't recognize the caller's voice, but identified her as a woman with no accent who spoke perfect English.

The employee who took the first call said the voice sounded the same as that of the woman who phoned in a bomb threat to the office in May.

Police said Cueto-Alvarez blocked her number from showing on the DMV's caller ID, but the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles's service provider was able to trace the number and provide it to detectives.

Authorities said the number belonged to Cueto-Alvarez and she agreed to allow detectives to search her phone.

Police said her call log revealed that she had called the DMV office the mornings of Aug. 7 and Aug. 8 and had *67 as a prefix before the office’s number so her number would be hidden.

It's unclear whether Cueto-Alvarez was also the person who had called in May.

She was arrested on two counts of making a bomb threat and is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.